A respiratory doctor has spoken exclusively to The Canary about the rising crisis NHS workers are seeing as the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic continues.
Her powerful and heartbreaking words are absolutely vital for everyone to listen to.
“It’s absolutely everywhere”
Dr Katie Jones [name changed] is a respiratory consultant at an NHS hospital in the south of England. She sent The Canary a picture of flowers that a large supermarket donated to the hospital. “Which is just really sad”, she said, “because that’s also a lot of people who won’t see their mums on Mother’s Day”.
Jones also shared her frontline experience.
“Things are beginning to hot up at work”, she explained. The hospital is seeing growing numbers of people “who quite clearly” have coronavirus.
She also explained what it’s like seeing the range of people who’ve become ill, including “stay at home mums who’ve caught it somehow via their kids”. She said: “It’s everywhere. It’s absolutely everywhere”.
Her message reflects the frustration and incomprehension of many doctors across the UK who saw people out and about on Friday 20 March. This was the day Boris Johnson finally announced was the last night for pubs and restaurants before closing, after several days of mixed messages.
It was like they were preparing for Christmas. This isn’t Christmas, people, this isn’t Christmas. And it’s not going to be fun. It’s not Christmas without the decorations.
“They could die from it, and so could I”, Jones said:
So could any of my colleagues. So could you. This is really, really serious.
“The tsunami is coming”
Reflecting on the “unbelievable” numbers of cases and deaths in Italy, Jones also emphasised:
in the NHS we are planning really, really hard. The tsunami is coming at us outside London. But in London, it’s… already hit and ITUs are already overwhelmed.
As Jones explained: “the NHS is here for you. And it’s here for everybody”, but:
it’s very, very frustrating seeing people in pubs and bars and restaurants and not socially distancing.
Jones was taking a rest day to “recuperate” before heading back to work. She’s also a mother and everyone should hear her words about the reality of giving everything to her job and trying to explain the situation to her children. And beyond this, she shares compassion for all those people without financial security or who’ve lost work and businesses.
The true downwinds of the storm that are coming… we’re in the very breezy bit at the moment outside London and just waiting for the storm to hit. It’s going to come in the next couple of days I think.
Please listen to her message in full here:
Featured image via Pixabay – DarkoStojanovic
Disclosure: Dr Katie Jones is related to the author.
